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The Lapen Crusade
Commander Brian Lapen, an ex-United Empire admiral, knows that for the United Universal Republic to last more than a few decades, they'd have to cripple the Imperial ship production. Having been stationed in the Pinnacle system for most of his career, he knows all the defenses of the heart of the United Empires military at this end of its empire. Gathering nearly the entire UUR fleet he set out to capture the 2nd biggest ship construction yard and Fortress-World. After gathering the fleets at Byron until the year 3700, they send several small frigate fleets to sneak into the Mastadon, Netholum and Rendal systems to harass their trade routes and distract nearby UE fleets to try and get rid of this nuisance. As soon as they frigates gave the signal that the fleets had started closing in, the Armada jumped. Battle Plan The plan that Lapen had devised was as followed: the Armada will spearhead all defenses, moving from 1 planet to the other without break, so as to destroy the fleets before reinforcements arrived. As soon as they were done, the main fleets will seperate and head for Brilliance, the Industrial Planet and capture it as soon as possible to crank out new ships for the inevitable retaliation, and Gauntlet, the fortress planet for a new secure base of operations. The Disaster What Lapen had not planned for, and cursed himself for having expected this, was that the UE had sent their own Armada, the Emperors Wrath. Knowing that Lapen would probably want to capture what he created, they had sent Grand Admiral Prealan Nask to recreate the defenses before the UUR try to take it. The disaster for the UE was that the defenses were midway to replacement. The disaster for the UUR was that the enemy fleet surpassed theirs, and the UE were trained and hardened soliders, whereas the UUR were mainly made up of a few rebellious commanders and system guards, and the rest being officers in training and any local starship captains. The Battle Lapen knowing that his army wouldnt have a chance had to think fast. He ordered his men to continue with his plan, to smash into the UE fleet, but instead of continuing to a different planet to turn around for another turn. As the UUR flew, both had opened fire. Missles were flying by, explosions were happening everywhere as stray railgun rounds hit missles and hull alike. Forward ranks of both fleets were being blown apart, unlucky ships smashing or getting rammed by stray debris from the dead. As Lapens Dreadnaught, the Merely Glimpsed, ''nears the front it fires all of its lasers, the only completed UE ship so far to carry this new technology. In the first few moments of all other human officers gawping, the ''Merely Glimpsed had blown apart 4 frigates and 2 cruisers. As Admiral Nask realises his losses, he commanded all ships to focus down the enemy commander in hopes of demoralising the enemy. Upon his own dreadnaught the Unstoppable Force ''he ordered his ship to hold all fire and prepare for one frenzied assault. Unaware of Nasks desperate preperation, Laspen ordered second-in-command Captain Johne Sovanhe, to switch to the battleship, ''Steel Star, in preperation for the seperation, believing that his fleet will prevail against these odds. As kinetics and missles alike hit hull and weapons alike, and as the ships rattle from the explosions, both near and far, the Unstoppable Force opens fire. After having suffered considerable damage from other ships, Lapen finally realises that the ships had been focusing the Merely Glimpsed in order to eliminate him. As Lapen sounds the evacuation, his weapons crew volunteer to stay behind and demand he gets off the ship. As they focus all batteries towards the Unstoppable Force, ''the ''Merely Glimpsed ''starts breaking apart, the engines explode, blasting out a third of the ship, but the lasers, cutting through the shield-less dreadnaught of Nask, create big enough cuts in the ship for missles. As they detonate inside the very ship, both dreadnaughts explode in giant fireballs, engulfing several nearby frigates and critically damaging a few cruisers. But the UE has run out of time, as the UUR fleet nears they start turning outward, so as to avoid getting rammed. But the UUR had been trained for this, focusing on the life support and armories of the ship, UE cruisers and battleships alike get blasted apart, while frigates last less than seconds. As the UUR pulls around, they notice a second UE fleet moving in! As Lapen starts barking orders from his new home, the Cruiser ''Dead and Gone, a Pilgrim fleet, headed by Lapens old friend, Captain George Damocles, hails the UUR fleet; informing them that the Pilgrims have learned of the plan to slow the UE war machine and have sent all they could spare. Noticing that the United Empire fleet has not seen the Pilgrims come in, he orders them to fly around Pinnacle II and ambush the UE from behind, as the UUR fleet regroups behind the wrecks of the two armadas. The UE fleet, confident that their dead brothers have softened up the UUR enough, rush forward, firing all batteries. Lapen, expecting this, had ordered his fleet to stay behind the wrecks, knowing that they first rounds of fire will be wasted upon nothing but debris. As the UE neared, the UUR surge, and as the Pilgrims come up behind the UE fleet, both fleets open firing. The UE fleet didn't stand a chance. The Crusade Continues Without even a moments break, Lapen relays his strategy to Damocles, and both head for their own targets. Damocles was given the target of Brilliance, while Lapen continued with his blood thirsty brothers to Gauntlet. Brilliance falls within four days. But Gauntlet, even when their space defenses were destroyed after been ordered to move away from the planet, was still as strong on the land as it was before Nask. As UUR forces dropped in near endless numbers, according to UE radios, their fleet began bombarding the most heavily infested areas; trying to soften up the defenses for thier ground troops. The siege-crusade of the planet lasted nearly two weeks, a battle of the UE against UUR, who were joined by the Pilgrims after the first week. After Gauntlet fell, Pinnacle I, III, and VI surrendered to the democary of the United Universal Republic. Results The United Empire, crippled after having lost one of their most important systems has begun doubling all propaganda, trying to rush all their worlds into industrial ones, no matter the damage to the planet and its people. But the United Universal Republic had a major victory; they had stalled a UE counter attack, and gained a military system. But the leaders had grim faces, on Gauntlet, the UUR forces had overheard the destruction of prototypes for a super weapon they called MAC. Unsure of what to prepare for, the leaders propose a trade agreement to increase their economies as fast as possible to prepare for the rest of the war. Behind the Papers For the next three decades, the UUR had been interrogating the UE prisoners in the cell blocks of Gauntlet. While most of the soldiers had no knowledge of the workings outside of the system, they had their most success with the engineers. Several of them were broken and had revealed the construction of the MAC, as well as several projects modified from it; including a shrunken down automatic varient, attempting to create impenetrable hulls, as well as R&D using Craver and Hissho ship wrecks. From delays, recently learned to be from hidden jammers at the outer rims of the system, the leaders of the UUR had only learned of these discoveries 150 years after the Crusade. Shocked by the new information: at how far behind they are now, and that the Horatio haven't felt like telling them about it, they had significantly increased funding to the R&D teams, as well as combining them. Hoping to use their high variety of species, thinking and materials to be able to catch up and hopefully surpass the currently unknown technology of the UE.